INNOVATION AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Innovation & Knowledge Management



UK electronic government Innovation & Knowledge Management

Introduction

The term electronic government (e-Government) generally refers to the use of information and communications technology (ICT) to change the structures and processes of government organisations. Many governments world-wide have invested heavily in this agenda but there is a lack of clear case material which describes the potentialities and pitfalls experienced by organisations at the forefront of this change.

This paper presents a case study of the process of 'constructing' e-Government experienced by this organisation. We place this organisation's attempts at ICT innovation within the context for e-Government within the UK. We also use a model developed as part of our research - the electronic government organisation - to help explain some of the potentialities and pitfalls in this area. In terms of this analysis we review definitions of e-government and call for a more holistic use of the term in the development of future strategy.

Discussion

The UK government has invested heavily in an attempt to change the structures and processes of government through innovation with information and communications technology (ICT). The department of the Inland Revenue has been at the forefront of this electronic government (e-Government) vision. The department has undertaken major attempts to re-engineer its interface with the UK citizen and other stakeholders. It has also suffered a number of highly publicised failures in delivering its services electronically. In this paper we present a case study of this experience based upon published sources and use a model of the electronic government organisation to help explain some of the potentialities and pitfalls in this area. This leads us to review definitions of e-Government and call for a more holistic use of the term in the development of future strategy.

The structure of this paper is as follows. First, we describe some of the background to e-Government in the UK. Second we describe the key characteristics of the Inland Revenue and its development of an e-Government strategy. Third, we use a model of the electronic government organisation to help describe the implementation of the organisation's strategy. Fourth, we conduct an evaluation of the costs and benefits of this strategy. Fifth, we examine some of the difficulties experienced by this organisation in its implementation of e-Government. Finally, we analyse this experience in terms of the future strategy for e-Government in the UK.

ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT

In this section we provide an overview of the background to e-Government in the UK.

Within a proposed national strategy for electronic local government in England, the term electronic government has been recently defined as exploiting the power of information and communications technology to help transform the accessibility, quality and cost- effectiveness of public services, and to help revitalise the relationship between customers and citizens and public bodies who work on their behalf (LGA, 2002).

The Government is committed to ensuring that the UK is placed to become a world leader in the new electronic age. It is essential that public services play a full part in this digital ...